“Luckily there, apart from turn one, it’s not that slow the chicanes. I’m hoping the traction loss we were having in the super-slow corners [at Spa], hopefully it won’t be as bad there.”

Imo Both cars are quite even, no one is faster than the other in the PU. mercs spec 3 is == ferrari spec 3,(all of a sudden F.I and williams are very competitive relative to pre-spec 3) so it all depends on the setup, weather, new updates (hopefully ferrari brings some new aero/chassis updates) and drivers to get the car to be the best right now.

Hamilton always blames the car when he loses, but it looks like even they know the mercedes disadvantage wasn't engine power but traction in slow corners.

Team principal Toto Wolff agreed Mercedes’ struggles at Spa were not unexpected given recent and historical form.

“The last [race] where we have been quickest was Silverstone. We were really good in [Paul] Ricard and Austria. And since then Ferrari has been quicker in Hockenheim, you can say Budapest was no surprise, Spa was always a bit of a tricky one for us in the past as well.

“Monza was a good one so I’m very curious to see how it’s going to go in Monza. Last year we were very much in control of the whole weekend, Ferrari had their worst weekend of the season performance-wise.”

Wolff added he’s “not worried” about their position in the championship fight. “I think we should still address the opportunities that exist within our car where we need to optimise and only that will make us win the championship.”

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

i love the black car would be nice tribute too... if ferrari win with it

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Hamilton tried to do the backing off thing he tried last year in spa on the opening lap but he didnt time it right and seb managed to pass him on slipstream(he was in 7th gear where he should've been 8th at the section)

Mercedes lose about 0.2 ~ 0.3s on traction out of the first corner and last corners, (which has me real worried since they were only 0.050s slower at the end of the lap , Monza only has one corner like that (the 1st one), Looking at their top speeds at spa and how much Mercs, F.I and williams benefited shows great improvement from spec 2, even wolff said Monza track will suit their car better as they see it more akin to AustriaGP, frenchGP and BritishGP. while they group Spa track with GermanGP and HungaryGP)

The analysis Takes a look at what mercedes new flexing rear wing means and how it could be giving them advantage

Also takes a look at Kimi's broken drs system and why the team initially didnt pickup on it being broken (imo kimi def needs a new race engineer - they cant understand each other)

Last edited by mwk360; 28th August 2018 at 13:18.

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Also read apparently Mercedes were going to decide whether to use Bottas fullforce as a means to help Hamilton win the WDC after Monza, but after spa results with Vettel winning and already seeing mercedes planning to sacrifice bottas to use as a slipstream in spa it looks like Mercedes will be using bottas as a tool for hamilton where ever possible, so be prepared to see more slipstreaming from mercedes at Monza as there are big gains to make when teams are seemingly equal in Ferrari & Mercedes right now. Kimi was said to be getting a two year contract this weekend, whether Ferrari start to use Kimi to help Vettel the same way mercedes uses Bottas will be crucial to the WDC.

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Apparently Ferrari / Seb were required to to do some FIA test checks for the sensors to make sure the ferrari engine/battery is legal, in some of the last few laps after both hamilton and seb seemed to have turned their engines down. since ferrari had brought a new components. similar to Canada

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Found a very interesting article on why vettel was able to pass Hamilton in spa, and it explains the why Hamilton has no reason for complaining about the Ferrari passing him like if he wasn’t there because the difference between engines wasn’t the actual cause.http://autogrip.gr/drivealyze-this-v...one-this-time/

Found a very interesting article on why vettel was able to pass Hamilton in spa, and it explains the why Hamilton has no reason for complaining about the Ferrari passing him like if he wasn’t there because the difference between engines wasn’t the actual cause.http://autogrip.gr/drivealyze-this-v...one-this-time/

Found a very interesting article on why vettel was able to pass Hamilton in spa, and it explains the why Hamilton has no reason for complaining about the Ferrari passing him like if he wasn’t there because the difference between engines wasn’t the actual cause.http://autogrip.gr/drivealyze-this-v...one-this-time/

Yup! nice pic, Vettel didnt have the faster engine, hammy slowed down to use his 2017 tactics and it backfired and allowed seb to catch up and get closer in slipstream to pass him

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Im the same, a little unhappy lol, if only monza was during the spec 2 races.
But atleast its not slower as far as spa told us

Its about the exact same now, comparing spec 3 i think mercs seem to have more raw top speed while ferrari have better acceleration thanks to the battery and better fuel consumption in races

I remember Hartley passing ericcson down the long straight and vice versa. so Ferrari vs Honda engines were closer than people thought on those cars, seems every engine manufacture has upped their game

We'll have to see if Mercs were hiding even more power at Monza, lets hope ferrari has some updates, mercs have had numerous updates every race on the aero/chassis side with equal engines those parts become even more important.

Seb said they have somethings in the pipeline so Lets cross fingers the development doesnt flop like last year

Last edited by mwk360; 28th August 2018 at 13:44.

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

I think they are very evenly matched now, it’s just not the rocketship that Hamilton is trying to pass to the public to male his wins look like miracles and put even more pressure on ferrri to win

EXACTLY!

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Hopefully the future ferrari driver gave us some good data along with footage

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Ferrari went with very skinny rear wing almost similar to redbull(who have a big engine deficit) to gain as much time in the highspeed sector 1 and sector 3 as opposed to mercedes who went with a baku rear wing to gain time in sector 2(43% of a lap) and sacrificing speed in s1 and s3(57% of a lap)

Mercedes new front wing balanced the baku rear wing perfectly at spa but mercs main loss was not the straights but the traction given away at la source so whether they use the same front wing or not will have to be seen.

Monza all teams will go with skinniest rear wings, than the mercedes vs ferrari engines can be compared with both running skinny wings

hockenheim 2018 / China 2018 : Never forget how quick Ferrari can lose it all, be humble.
Positivity doesn't win you championships, whining about people being negative makes you blind!
lol ignore the bitter old cows ;-)

Ferrari went with very skinny rear wing almost similar to redbull(who have a big engine deficit) to gain as much time in the highspeed sector 1 and sector 3 as opposed to mercedes who went with a baku rear wing to gain time in sector 2(43% of a lap) and sacrificing speed in s1 and s3(57% of a lap)

Mercedes new front wing balanced the baku rear wing perfectly at spa but mercs main loss was not the straights but the traction given away at la source so whether they use the same front wing or not will have to be seen.

Monza all teams will go with skinniest rear wings, than the mercedes vs ferrari engines can be compared with both running skinny wings

Ferrari did good n won Silverstone GP, which is high speed circuit.
So I expect the same to be in Monza as well. I think ferrari will run different floor n diffuser in Monza which they trailed in Hungary or Germany.

weather forecast on accuweather has change to cloudy Friday with no rain, and dry Sat and Sun during Q and race

Weather forecast i saw said thunderstorms for friday and cloudy for sat. Well hopefully what your saying is true. But last weeks qualifying said it had 0% chance of rain and look at what happened in q3

Ferrari went with very skinny rear wing almost similar to redbull(who have a big engine deficit) to gain as much time in the highspeed sector 1 and sector 3 as opposed to mercedes who went with a baku rear wing to gain time in sector 2(43% of a lap) and sacrificing speed in s1 and s3(57% of a lap)

Mercedes new front wing balanced the baku rear wing perfectly at spa but mercs main loss was not the straights but the traction given away at la source so whether they use the same front wing or not will have to be seen.

Monza all teams will go with skinniest rear wings, than the mercedes vs ferrari engines can be compared with both running skinny wings

Mercs did go with high DF Becoz,
1) to protect their tyres from overload in S1&S3
2) they thought their upgrade spec3 would equal match to Ferrari on S1&S3.
As they couldn’t see real potential of Ferrari in last 2 quali, where I got effected by rain.

The black Ferrari looks very stealthy, also looking at the engine components. Ferrari parts have been reliable this year and everyone on the same allocation of Hamilton and some of the other Merc powered cars.